Virgin Blue can change their name to Virgin Australia and repaint the airplanes but the facts don’t change their poor service remains and always will.

For some stupid reason I decided to give Virgin another go so I booked 3 Premium Economy flights departing from Brisbane to Darwin on Sunday the 14th of August when we arrived we checked in and then headed to the Virgin lounge when we arrived at the lounge we were told that the lounge was closing at 8.30pm our flight was departing at 9pm.

We could not believe what we were hearing 3 guys pumped about our fishing trip to NT and we had departed the Gold Coast at 6.30pm to give us plenty of time to get to Brisbane, check-in and relax in the lounge.

Well the lounge was a total disappointment no food and we were surrounded by staff wiping down tables and cleaning it was more than apparent that the staff were more interested in getting the lounge closed instead of delivering a level of service that they should.

Then when we finally boarded the plane we faced another round of disappointment the Premium Economy seats were not much better than standard seating they were a 3 seat retro fitted with a table insert in the middle no extra leg room as such no entertainment in one of the front rows.

I had to express my disappointment to the Virgin staff and to no surprise they really were not concerned. I asked them how they could justify $610 per premium economy seat with no lounge benefits as such and the reply I got a simple one oh you get free food, drinks and entertainment on the flight. Well as far as the food went you had a choice of meat pies or meat pies and drinks well soft drinks and one crap beer Pure Blonde nothing else.

Well it just keeps getting better we are now returning home from Darwin to Brisbane and on the 1.55am flight and we go to check in and we are at the back of the Priority check in because people that should not be in this cue were in it but did Virgin staff care NO they did not. It took us nearly one hour to check in and then we had to fight for front row because other people are being sold $69 upgrades prior to flying. When we complained we were treated with a stupid smirking attitude from the check in counter staff. They did not care we asked where the lounge was we got told there isn’t one.

Then one of my mates asked so why did we pay all the extra money if this was the service level and quality Virgin provide. He got really upset because for all the extra money paid out it was a fast.

Anyway we are about to board for Brisbane and no doubt we will be treated with the same bad service as we experienced on our flight up. Virgin can fire up their marketing machine all they like but they will never polish or replace the poor service they call Premium Economy

When we got on the flight all hell broke out over the seating arrangements between us and another passenger. The whole experience is really poor you even get bashed with bags left right and centre as the other guest bordered.

Be warned do not fork out the extra coin for the Premium Economy domestic flights the level of service is really no better not for the extra coin you fork out.

Virgin and Sir Richard really need to lift their game.

Paul Klerck, Nick Ray and Colin Powell very disappointed passengers that will never fly Virgin again unless we get an apology and compensation from Virgin Australia.